Media Medium
14 May 2001

RICHARD & JUDY

Judy Packs The Punch

Their astrology suggests Judy Finnigan has been the key to
This Morning's success, with Richard Madeley playing a
necessary bit part in her movie.

Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan are Taureans, born a few days
away from each other in different years - Richard May 13 1956,
Judy May 16 1948 - and their dark-horse move to Channel 4 is
their birthday surprise. Taureans are noted for sticking things
out and they don't usually relinquish their hold when they are on
to a good thing. This Morning, a programme born under the
marriage sign of Libra (launched October 3 1988), has been a
perfect format for the everyday magic between them as a couple,
and like all patient Taurean Bulls they would probably have
plodded on into eternity if matador Maureen Duffy, ITV's
controller of daytime programmes, hadn't waved one red rag too
many.

Likeness is the mother of affection, so the old adage goes, and
Richard and Judy are like hand in glove, with much in common. Not
only are they both Taurus, but both have Venus, the planet of
love, in the cosy, domestic sign of the Cancerian Crab. Good
news, then, for daytime viewers, at home in their shells,
scuttling along with plenty of personal, Cancerian emotion to
make them feel secure. Nothing could be more conventional, some
would say yawnsome, than this clingy, safe-bets Taurus-Cancer
combination, so what has given the show its poke for the last
thirteen years?

Richard's chart shows that he likes to see himself as the clever
Dick of the duo, and his Mercury connections with This Morning
indicate an endless supply of observations and curiosities. Left
to his own devices, he is liable to chat on in the same mould,
uninterrupted, until at least 2017. Yet the astrology suggests
that Judy has been the key to This Morning's success, with
Richard as a necessary bit part in her movie. The programme's
appeal comes from Venus, placed on Regulus, the Royal Star at the
heart of the lion in the Leo constellation. This makes the
programme a winner by mysteriously triggering an archetypal
response in its viewers, the 'IT' thing that no-one can ever
quite explain. Judy's Mars is on the same Royal Star and
therefore exactly on the show's Venus, making her its magnetic
attraction. This Leo Mars can also be proud and wilful, with an
aggression that is not always obvious and a prima donna
haughtiness difficult to accommodate.

Add this to the stubborn streak inherent in Taurus and Richard
and Judy can lock in to an entrenched, possessive position. After
thirteen years tenure at Granada, it would have been impossible
for them not to see This Morning as their child, and theirs only.
When Taureans find it difficult to let go, they repress change
and defend against it until disruptive events come at them from
the outside:

" there is usually a bee in the flowers...Often the Taurus
himself courts this bee without realising it, unconsciously
setting up a situation where he is shocked aware while thinking
it happened by chance or was someone else's fault." (Liz Greene,
Star Signs For Lovers).

Unluckily for Maureen Duffy, she has been projected into this
role, the bee in their flower. Since last summer, Uranus the
outsider planet of independence and defiance, has been triggering
adventurous Jupiter, moving Judy's psyche away from a
predictable, middle-of-the-road image. We can see the first hint
of trouble in her little mishap at the National Television awards
last autumn: at the very moment of receiving accolades for This
Morning, something pops up to warn us that all is not as securely
contained as we might imagine. If her bosses at Granada had been
reading the omens, they would have known then that Judy was
threatening to let it all hang out.

Most commentators reckon that the move to the Channel 4 genre
won't work, but there are no immediate wobbles in the astrology
so Judy can allay her fears that she has made a wrong move. Yet
there is no room for complacency or churning out old formats.
Both horoscopes are dominated by radical Uranus for several years
to come, so tune in to see a new-look Richard and Judy, with
attitude.